Cleanout Is Crucial

Producers planting soybean or cotton seed resistant to the herbicide dicamba this year are no doubt aware of drift issues that caused damage in non-resistant crops last year. Additionally, even trace amounts of dicamba left in the tanks or plumbing of sprayers can cause issues if the sprayer is then used to spray non-resistant crops.

Rain, wind and a hundred other things can stop a job before it’s done, letting residues settle in the plumbing. ClearFlow, the industry’s first full-recovery system, pushes unused product from the plumbing back into the tank prior to a tank or boom rinse. Product goes back in the tank to be re-agitated or offloaded, minimizing waste and contamination, so you’ll be confident plumbing and booms are clean.

Even 2 to 3 milliliters of undiluted dicamba left in the tank, or a soft drink can’s worth of dicamba spray mix, is enough to injure a crop of non-resistant plants, Wolf says. “I think a lot of people were blown out of the water when it came to evaluating damage—they didn’t think it would be that serious.”

This need for thorough cleanout is one of the reasons AGCO® designed the new RoGator C Series sprayers with the all-new LiquidLogic system, including the ClearFlow™ product recovery option. ClearFlow uses air pressure to push unused product from the plumbing and hoses back into the tank prior to a tank or boom rinse, and then can even send a shot of air through the nozzles to be sure they are clear.

“Cleanout is an important factor for today’s market,” says Mark Mohr, AGCO tactical marketing manager, “both because of the high number of product changeovers that might be required and because of the significant amount of time it takes to do cleanout.”

The ClearFlow system not only saves time while doing spray boom cleanout with air when a job is completely finished, it also can be used to put gallons of valuable product from the booms and sprayer system back into the tank. “Up to 28 gallons of product could be left in a sprayer’s system without the RoGator C’s recovery system,” says Mohr. “This system puts all of that back in the tank except for about 2½ gallons.” The small amount of remaining product is then easily flushed out with the system rinse.

The RoGator C Series LiquidLogic features also help save product at startup. “Without the RoGator C’s push-button self-priming booms, you could expend 3 to 4 acres’ worth of product at startup for the day to get the liquid all along the boom,” Mohr says. “You can waste $150 worth of product with every boom charge; that’s thousands of dollars over the course of a season. Now, with the push of a button, you prime precise concentrations all along the boom without wasting product day after day.”

Once the RoGator C Series tank is filled for the day and the system is primed to spray, the FlowLogic™ boom recirculation plumbing keeps product moving through the boom plumbing and filters to reduce product buildup and help eliminate plugged spray tips. “The liquid always stays in motion,” Mohr says of FlowLogic’s recirculation. “There are no dead ends for residue to accumulate or clog. This feature is unique to this series in North America.”

Wolf says he believes the LiquidLogic system can be very beneficial to farmers. “I’ve seen the demonstrations, and the cleanout feature will be very useful,” he says. “But what I didn’t realize was how much product this system can save in priming the booms and cleanout at the end.”